Frank Ammerlaan (born 1979 in

Sassenheim Sassenheim () is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The former municipality covered an area of 6.62 km² (of which 0.23 km² water) and had a population of 14,906 in 2005. Sinc ...

) is a Dutch artist who lives and works in London.

Biography

Ammerlaan graduated as an independent artist from the

Gerrit Rietveld Academie The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The academy was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design. History In 1924, the I ...

in Amsterdam in 2007. In 2012 he graduated in fine art at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with paintings, sculptures and photography. For his graduation show Ammerlaan won ''The Land Securities Studio Award''. In 2012 he received the ''Royal Award for Painting'', which is handed to the most promising young Dutch painter of that year. From 2012, Ammerlaan also makes

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

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Ammerlaan experiments with unusual materials, like galvanised and passivated metals and pulverized meteorit

He exhibited in several museums and galleries in the Netherlands and abroa

Ammerlaan is one of the founders of the exhibition spaces ''Horse Move Project Space'' (2004) and ''De Service Garage'' (2007), both situated in Amsterdam. Currently ''De Service Garage'' is giving space to seven artists and is run by Benjamin Roth and Daniel Hofstede.

Work

Most characteristic for Ammerlaan's work are his monumental colorful paintings. His oeuvre includes works in which subtle stains of color appear on an otherwise black canvas. The surface seems to be calm from afar, but when you approach it subtly changes. Ammerlaan's work does not try to provoke

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...

s. The emphasis lies in showing barely perceptible changes. Another series of colorful paintings are embroidered with thin, shiny, sometimes

fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, ...

threads, which frame and structure the surface. The fragile threads change color with changing light and sometimes seem to fade into the background. The geometrical patterns of thread create a permeable fence, like a web or weave which you can seemingly get stuck in or hold onto. These works are illuminating and seductive though ultimately deny the viewer access. In the recent years Frank Ammerlaan has diversified his practice to include sculpture, photography and video. Painting, however, remains his most important medium. His series of small sensitive sculptures, made of different types of conductive metal, form repetitive geometric shapes originating from aerial and antenna structures. The sculptures suggest a biomimicry-related language ready to receive and transmit signals and information. In 2010 Ammerlaan developed a practice of painting with chemicals. Having done research for a number of years with chemists and scientists he physicalized the phenomenal aesthetics of organic color arrangements – visible on a rainy urban day – in the form of oil spills. The result is extremely detailed, holographic but

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

, and becomes noxious in our contemporary political context. More work: File:023.GAL.UPSTREAM-FRANK AMERLAAN-Photo.GJ.vanROOIJ.jpg, Frank Ammerlaan, 2012, ''Untitled'', Chemicals on canvas, 70 x 50 cm File:014.GAL.UPSTREAM-FRANK AMERLAAN-Photo.GJ.vanROOIJ.jpg, Frank Ammerlaan, 2012, ''Untitled'', Oil on canvas, 81,5 x 56 cm File:008.GAL.UPSTREAM-FRANK AMERLAAN-Ph.GJ.vanROOIJ.jpg, Frank Ammerlaan, 2012, ''Untitled'', Oil and thread on canvas, 180 x 160 cm

Prizes and scholarships

* 2013 The Scheffer Award * 2013 Residency Fondazione MACC Museo d'Arte Conteporanea in Calasetta, Italy * 2012 Land Securities prize * 2012 Doha Studio Art prize * 2012 Royal Award for Painting * 2011 Nomination Royal Award for Painting * 2010 Nomination Royal Award for Painting * 2010 Fund BKVB abroad scholarship (till 2012) * 2010 Hendrik Muller Fund * 2009 Nomination Royal Award for Painting * 2009 Scholarship Fund BKVB * 2009 Foundation Niemeijer fund * 2007 Gerrit Rietveld Academie Award for Painting

Exhibitions (selection)

2017
Particles of Dust
solo exhibition a
Upstream Gallery
in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

* Drawing Biënnale,

Londen Axel Fredrik Londen (5 August 1859 – 8 September 1928) was a Finnish sports shooter, who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Olympics He was a member of the board of the Finnish Olympic Committee in 1907–1908 and 1911–1913. B ...

2016
MOONLESS
, solo exhibition at Bosse & Baum Gallery,

* Sparkling like the surface of the ocean at night, Garage Rotterdam,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

AKZO NOBEL Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countrie ...

Art Foundation, Amsterdam 2015 * Outside the Wireframe, SIM Galeria, Curitiba, Brazilië
Transformer
group exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
The Extended Arms of the Transom
solo exhibition at David Risley Gallery,

Kopenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Faith by Proxy
solo exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam 2014
ABC (Art Berlin Contemporary)
met Upstream Gallery,

Berlijn Berlijn may refer to: * the Dutch name for Berlin, the capital city, a municipality, and a state in Germany. * Dick Berlijn (1950), a Dutch general * Berlijn, Suriname, a village {{disambiguation, geo, surname ...

* Christopher Crescent, Brussel * Reforming Intervals, Laure Genillard, Londen 2013 *

The Armory Show The Armory Show is an international art fair in New York City, known as New York's Art Fair. Established in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair by dealers Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the annua ...

, solo met Upstream Gallery in New York 2012 * Painting without Paint, groepstentoonstelling bij David Risley Gallery, Kopenhagen * Day's End, solotentoonstelling bij Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam * Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst '12, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam * Nature/structure, Upstream Gallery op de Dutch Design Week Eindhoven * PS, Co/Lab Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten * Stereopsis, The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts Londen (met en gecureerd door Frank Ammerlaan e.a), Groot-Brittannië * Land of the Seven Moles, PS Projectspace Amsterdam * Graduation show, Royal College Of Art, Londen, Groot-Brittannië * Mapping the Horizon, Upstream Gallery Amsterdam 2011 * Royal Prize of Painting '11, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam * New Space, B&N Gallery, Londen, Groot-Brittannië * Unlit, Solo show, PS, Amsterdam * Zomeratelier 2011, CBK Zeeland * Interim Show, Royal College of Art, Londen, Groot-Brittannië * Life is Elsewhere, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancreas Church, Londen, Groot-Brittannië * Pep, Post-Museum, Singapore 2010 * Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst ’10, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam * Und#6, Schwartz gallery, Londen, Groot-Brittannië * Derivation, Skånes konstförening Malmö, Zweden * Art Blossom, Brug 9, Amsterdam * Magnitude, Alpineum produzentengalerie, Luzern, Zwitserland * Amsterdam-Berlin, Forgotten bar, Berlijn, Duitsland * Marsupial, Supermarket art fair, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Zweden 2009 * Let’s take it outside, ter ere van het tweejarige bestaan van De Service Garage, Amsterdam * Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst ’09, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam * Quantum Vis V, RC De Ruimte & De Service Garage * UND#5, Nice, Frankrijk * .NL, DREI, Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Keulen, Duitsland * Power to the paint, Arti & Amicitiae, Amsterdam 2008 * Koud, De Service Garage Amsterdam * Three is a nice couple, De Veemvloer Amsterdam * Uit De Tijd, De service Garage Amsterdam * 1141, Magnetic field, Galerie Gist Brummen * Re-understandings, Kunstvlaai 7, De Service Garage Amsterdam * Frank Ammerlaan & Michael Agacki, Horse Move Project Space Amsterdam * Clup-ivoor, Art Rotterdam 2007 * De Service Garage Amsterdam * Jong Talent, Artolive '07, zuiveringshal westergas Amsterdam * Eindexamententoonstelling, Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam * Clup-Ivoor, PAKT Amsterdam * De Belofte, PAKT Amsterdam

References

* ''Pressrelease Day's End'', Upstream Gallery, 30 November 2012 * Snejana Krasteva, ''The Alchemy of a perennial threshold''

External links

Website Frank Ammerlaan

Website Upstream Gallery, representing Frank Ammerlaan

Website De Service Garage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ammerlaan, Frank 1979 births Living people Dutch contemporary artists Gerrit Rietveld Academie alumni Dutch expatriates in England People from Teylingen